Three Dundee men have appeared in court after a police probe into the theft of seven Ford Fiestas and two Fiat Abarth cars.
Officers arrested the trio on Monday and they were charged with stealing up to nine vehicles, according to Police Scotland.
It’s claimed the vehicles had vanished from addresses in Aberdeen and across Aberdeenshire between June 3 and July 9.
On Tuesday, the men appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court charged with a total of 31 offences.
Stewart Burns, 40, Lee Smith, 20, and Stuart Webber, 19, made no plea and were committed for further examination.
Theft, weapons and drug charges
Burns faces six theft of motor vehicle charges, one of attempted car theft, possession of prohibited offensive weapons in private, being concerned in the supplying of a drug and breaching bail conditions.
He was remanded in custody and will reappear in the dock within the next eight days.
Smith faces six theft of motor vehicle charges and one of being concerned in the production of a drug.
Webber is charged with six theft of motor vehicle offences, one of attempted car theft, driving dangerously while disqualified and without insurance, failing to stop for police, possession of prohibited offensive weapons in private and being concerned in the supplying of a drug.
Smith and Webber were both released on bail to return to the courtroom on a date still to be confirmed.
Car crime rise
Ford Fiesta STs were revealed to be the most stolen car in 2023 and The Courier reported in March how police have urged owners to be particularly vigilant.
It came after the cases of Derrin Gunn and Aiden Paterson, both locked up for their stealing sprees.
Brazen thieves are using keyless entry techniques to get into the vehicles before taking them to chop shops, where they are dismantled for their component parts.
The most common and far less sophisticated method of keyless theft sees thieves targeting the driver’s door lock, forcefully turning it until the central locking unlocks.
Other criminals use a device to amplify a key’s signal, allowing them to unlock the car, start the engine and drive away.
The so-called relay theft method involves a hand-held kit used to search for parked cars that use keyless entry.
If the car key is close enough, the thieves can amplify the signal – sending it to a transmitter that mimics the owner’s key.
One Ford Fiesta stolen every 88 minutes
Last year, 64,087 vehicles were stolen across the UK – one every eight minutes – in a 4.9% increase from 61,106 in 2022, according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The official figures included 5,976 stolen Ford Fiestas across Great Britain – one taken every 88 minutes.
DVLA data had previously revealed a 53% spike in Fiesta thefts during 2022, rising from 3,909 in 2021 to 5,979 the following year.
Last year, official figures from the authority confirmed that the Ford Fiesta was the UK’s number one stolen vehicle in 2023.
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